In the same way, all the chief priests and the people increased their infidelities, according to all the abominable customs of the nations, and they defiled the House of Yahweh, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.
Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent them warnings from the beginning through his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his Dwelling Place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh rose against his people to such a point that there was no remedy…
4th Sunday of Lent
2 CHRONICLES 36, 14-23
In the same way, all the chief priests and the people increased their infidelities, according to all the abominable customs of the nations, and they defiled the House of Yahweh, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.
Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent them warnings from the beginning through his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his Dwelling Place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh rose against his people to such a point that there was no remedy.
Then he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans. They burned the House of God and tore down the walls of Jerusalem: they set fire to all its palaces and destroyed all its precious objects. And those who escaped the sword he carried away captive to Babylon, where they were slaves to him and his sons until the rise of the kingdom of the Persians; so that the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled:
“Until the land has paid for its Sabbaths, it shall rest all the days of desolation, until the seventy years are fulfilled.”
In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in fulfillment of the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, who issued a proclamation, both by word and in writing, throughout his kingdom:
“Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has charged me to build him a House in Jerusalem, in Judah. Whoever is among you of his people, let his God be with him, and let him go up!”
The books called “historical” in the Old Testament form two groups. The first (Joshua – Judges – Ruth – Samuel – Kings) narrates the occupation by the Israelites of the land of Canaan. The second group consists of the two books of Chronicles and the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
The two books of Chronicles, which originally formed only one, were formerly called “Paralipomenon”, that is, “the things omitted”. It is therefore a matter of complementing what is narrated in earlier books. It is a book written after the Babylonian exile, in an atmosphere of intense piety, of conversion of the People to God, living around the Temple, as a symbol of union with God and of his presence.
Written in the 3rd century B.C., its intention is fully “sapiential”: it recounts History to remind Israel that its life depends on fidelity to God, expressed in worship, performed from the heart. It is a very influential book of the time. It can even be said that the religiosity of the pious Jews contemporary with Jesus was strongly inspired by this book.
The fragment we read today narrates the Exile, as a punishment from God for infidelity, and the return from captivity by the decree of Cyrus, King of the Persians, conqueror of Babylon. In this fragment, a typical argument is presented: the infidelity of the people, including the priests; the patience of God, up to a limit; the warnings of God; the punishment; the mercy of God; the restoration through a savior. We are thus shown some important aspects of the faith of Israel:
– History must be read as “Salvation History”, the history of the relationships of man with God.
– God punishes evil reluctantly, because he loves the people, and is always ready to forgive.
Since Jesus, we see the insufficiency of this conception of God, well-directed but still far from the full revelation of “God with us Savior”. We also see that the figure of the savior, in this case the Persian King Cyrus, is a prefiguration of Jesus, The Savior.
EPHESIANS 2, 4-10
God, rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
This passage is like a hymn, celebrating the free and abundant love of God as the source of everything. It is also a text upon which several long controversies have been based: “justification.” Does faith or works justify us before God? This was one of the most serious divergences of Luther from the doctrine then considered more orthodox.
Later, this issue confronted various tendencies within the Catholic Church itself, in the famous controversy “De auxiliis”: if everything is the work of grace, what is our freedom? But that is not our topic.
It was an attempt, an admirable attempt, to delve deeply into the enigma of how the freedom of God Almighty and Savior relates to our freedom. From that attempt, we above all learn that our mind is capable of asking many questions, but not of finding all the answers. The pity is that due to these discussions, the unity of the church was broken…
And yet, Paul’s message is more important: Created by the love of God, to know God, through Jesus Christ; created to do good works. This is more important than other theological speculations. And Paul insists, not that we will be saved, but that we are saved, we are resurrected, we are seated at the right hand of the Father. It is not simply a promise for the future: that will be “the manifestation of what we already are.” It is not that we will rise and be children: it is that our life has been resurrected because in Jesus we have become aware of being children of God. What will happen afterward is that what is now still hidden, not yet fully brought to birth, will be fully manifested.
Read from John and from Paul, the entire Old Testament acquires a magnificent coherence. For this reason, among others, we do not see in the Bible merely a splendid book of human Wisdom, but we discern in it, even amidst its many provisionalities and attempts, the presence of the Spirit of God the Creator-Savior. That is why we speak of the Word of God.
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.